printed for j. johnson, no. 72, st. paul's
church.yard; and g.g. and j. robinson,
paternoster-row.
1798.

CHAP. I
CHAP. II
CHAP. III.
CHAP. IV.
CHAP. V.
CHAP. VI.
CHAP. VII.
CHAP. VIII.
CHAP. IX.
CHAP. X.

It has always appeared to me, that to give to the public some account of the life of a person of eminent merit
deceased, is a duty incumbent on survivors. It seldom happens that such a person passes through life, without
being the subject of thoughtless calumny, or malignant misrepresentation. It cannot happen that the public at
large should be on a footing with their intimate acquaintance, and be the observer of those virtues which
discover themselves principally in personal intercourse. Every benefactor of mankind is more or less
influenced by a liberal passion for fame; and survivors only pay a debt due to these benefactors, when they
assert and establish on their part, the honour they loved. The justice which is thus done to the illustrious dead,
converts into the fairest source of animation and encouragement to those who would follow them in the same
carreer. The human species at large is interested in this justice, as it teaches them to place their respect and
affection, upon those qualities which best deserve to be esteemed and loved. I cannot easily prevail on myself
to doubt, that the more fully we are presented with the picture and story of such persons as the subject of the
following narrative, the more generally shall we feel in ourselves an attachment to their fate, and a sympathy
in their excellencies. There are not many individuals with whose character the public welfare and
improvement are more intimately connected, than the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

The facts detailed in the following pages, are principally taken from the mouth of the person to whom they
relate; and of the veracity and ingenuousness of her habits, perhaps no one that was ever acquainted with her,
entertains a doubt. The writer of this narrative, when he has met with persons, that in any degree created to
themselves an interest and attachment in his mind, has always felt a curiosity to be acquainted with the scenes
through which they had passed, and the incidents that had contributed to form their understandings and
character. Impelled by this sentiment, he repeatedly led the conversation of Mary to topics of this sort; and,
once or twice, he made notes in her presence, of a few dates calculated to arrange the circumstances in his
mind. To the materials thus collected, he has added an industrious enquiry among the persons most intimately
acquainted with her at the different periods of her life.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April 1759. Her father's name was Edward John, and the name
of her mother Elizabeth, of the family of Dixons of Ballyshannon in the kingdom of Ireland: her paternal
grandfather was a respectable manufacturer in Spitalfields, and is supposed to have left to his son a property
of about 10,000l. Three of her brothers and two sisters are still living; their names, Edward, James, Charles,
Eliza, and Everina. Of these, Edward only was older than herself; he resides in London. James is in Paris, and
Charles in or near Philadelphia in America. Her sisters have for some years been engaged in the office of
governesses in private families, and are both at present in Ireland.

I am doubtful whether the father of Mary was bred to any profession; but, about the time of her birth, he
resorted, rather perhaps as an amusement than a business, to the occupation of farming. He was of a very
active, and somewhat versatile disposition, and so frequently changed his abode, as to throw some ambiguity
upon the place of her birth. She told me, that the doubt in her mind in that respect, lay between London, and a
farm upon Epping Forest, which was the principal scene of the five first years of her life.

course of her life. She experienced in the first period of her existence, but few of those indulgences and marks
of affection, which are principally calculated to sooth the subjection and sorrows of our early years. She was
not the favourite either of her father or mother. Her father was a man of a quick, impetuous disposition,
subject to alternate fits of kindness and cruelty. In his family he was a despot, and his wife appears to have
been the first, and most submissive of his subjects. The mother's partiality was fixed upon the eldest son, and
her system of government relative to Mary, was characterized by considerable rigour. She, at length, became
convinced of her mistake, and adopted a different plan with her younger daughters. When, in the Wrongs of
Woman, Mary speaks of "the petty cares which obscured the morning of her heroine's life; continual restraint
in the most trivial matters; unconditional submission to orders, which, as a mere child, she soon discovered to
be unreasonable, because inconsistent and contradictory; and the being often obliged to sit, in the presence of
her parents, for three or four hours together, without daring to utter a word;" she is, I believe, to be considered
as copying the outline of the first period of her own existence.

But it was in vain, that the blighting winds of unkindness or indifference, seemed destined to counteract the
superiority of Mary's mind. It surmounted every obstacle; and, by degrees, from a person little considered in
the family, she became in some sort its director and umpire. The despotism of her education cost her many a
heart-ache. She was not formed to be the contented and unresisting subject of a despot; but I have heard her
remark more than once, that, when she felt she had done wrong, the reproof or chastisement of her mother,
instead of being a terror to her, she found to be the only thing capable of reconciling her to herself. The blows
of her father on the contrary, which were the mere ebullitions of a passionate temper, instead of humbling her,
roused her indignation. Upon such occasions she felt her superiority, and was apt to betray marks of contempt.
The quickness of her father's temper, led him sometimes to threaten similar violence towards his wife. When
that was the case, Mary would often throw herself between the despot and his victim, with the purpose to
receive upon her own person the blows that might be directed against her mother. She has even laid whole
nights upon the landing-place near their chamber-door, when, mistakenly, or with reason, she apprehended
that her father might break out into paroxysms of violence. The conduct he held towards the members of his
family, was of the same kind as that he observed towards animals. He was for the most part extravagantly
fond of them; but, when he was displeased, and this frequently happened, and for very trivial reasons, his
anger was alarming. Mary was what Dr. Johnson would have called, "a very good hater." In some instance of
passion exercised by her father to one of his dogs, she was accustomed to speak of her emotions of
abhorrence, as having risen to agony. In a word, her conduct during her girlish years, was such, as to extort
some portion of affection from her mother, and to hold her father in considerable awe.

In one respect, the system of education of the mother appears to have had merit. All her children were
vigorous and healthy. This seems very much to depend upon the management of our infant years. It is
affirmed by some persons of the present day, most profoundly skilled in the sciences of health and disease,
that there is no period of human life so little subject to mortality, as the period of infancy. Yet, from the
mismanagement to which children are exposed, many of the diseases of childhood are rendered fatal, and
more persons die in that, than in any other period of human life. Mary had projected a work upon this subject,
which she had carefully considered, and well understood. She has indeed left a specimen of her skill in this
respect in her eldest daughter, three years and a half old, who is a singular example of vigorous constitution
and florid health. Mr. Anthony Carlisle, surgeon, of Soho-square, whom to name is sufficiently to honour, had
promised to revise her production. This is but one out of numerous projects of activity and usefulness, which
her untimely death has fatally terminated.

The rustic situation in which Mary spent her infancy, no doubt contributed to confirm the stamina of her
constitution. She sported in the open air, and amidst the picturesque and refreshing scenes of nature, for which
she always retained the most exquisite relish. Dolls and the other amusements usually appropriated to female
children, she held in contempt; and felt a much greater propensity to join in the active and hardy sports of her
brothers, than to confine herself to those of her own sex.